HistoryGrizzly

Been a week since the last inside scoop. Anyone have any idea what's going on with Ohio? I thought I saw a couple more acceptances leak out on the results page.

What's going on with Chicago? Saw a couple rejection emails on the results page today, but, lots of us haven't heard anything yet.

Was it a personal email from a POI or an automated email? If automated/mass email, that doesn't seem to bode well for me. Guess I'll be getting the ole rejection letter later this week.

tapshoes - What did you do in-between years to produce such an improvement in your results?

I had two rejections before my first acceptance. Keep hope alive.

Must have been a pretty nice letter. And it must be flattering to know that you were really in the mix, though, with two acceptances under your belt, surely it's just gravy at this point. There are no mass waves of rejection notices on the results page, so you really must have gotten the personal touch. It's so hard to figure if that means anything for the rest of us. Is there a mass of generic rejection letters coming? Or nice ones? Or acceptances? A little transparency wouldn't be the worst thing for this process.

I took four years of French in high school, and two in college (Though, the two in college were basic level classes) and I'd consider myself...able, but not necessarily masterful. I actually had to read a few letters in French this past week as part of my research, and was surprised by how much I picked up from it. If I had had a French to English dictionary in front of me, I think I would have been just fine. Now, translating SPOKEN French would have me pretty much screwed. Hearing it and seeing it are totally different animals. Oral French requires an incredible amount of practice (that's so true in so many ways). A lot of words sound the same, just like words in English do, and you can pretty easily mix them up if you aren't used to it, but when reading, you'd never make the same mistake. I think with a little practice I could probably pass a translation test in French if I was allowed a dictionary to consult, but if the test was a listening test, I probably wouldn't have a chance. Not without a lot more practice. I had a friend that went into the Peace Corps in Mali and wanted to learn French because outside of her village, it's the language of government. She spent several hours a day with Rosetta Stone for a few months, and didn't learn almost anything. I've never tried it, but her opinion is pretty low.I think the best way to do it is just to learn some fundamentals, and then read as many things in French as you can, always looking up words you don't know and then writing them down to quiz yourself. Once you learn the mechanics, it's all vocab. Imagine how you studied for the GRE. Same thing. Most of the elementary stuff in French is pretty easy as far as conjugating verbs go. It's harder when you have to write it yourself, but for reading comprehension, I think it's not so bad at all. Some of the future tense/past tense stuff can get tricky at the higher levels, and irregular verbs are a bitch, but, it's still one of the easier foreign languages.

Hm, well, what I'm wonder is, have all those accepted already been contacted? If all the letters go out next week, is that really just the letters of rejection? Even that would be nice to know. Man, looks like a banner year for funding at Michigan. Wish it would have worked out. I'm in American history, and it looks like five or so people on here have already been accepted. Doesn't look good.

I just got back from Bloomington on a research trip to the Lilly Library. Knowing I was going to be in town, I emailed someone I'd contacted before in the department and asked if it would be a good idea to schedule a meeting with my POI while I was down there since I was already in the neighborhood. He said it probably wasn't a good idea until after decisions had been made, and that I'd made the first cut but things were still coming along. He said if I got in, they'd pay for me to come down, so, no need to do anything now. That email was about a week or so ago. I haven't heard anything since.

pug I think it's time to make a phone call to the secretary in the history office at Penn, then. I know I got my rejection when the flood of them went out on Monday, and most everyone else left did as well.

I'm still waiting on Indiana, Ohio State, Rutgers, Michigan and UChicago. I'm not as antsy as I was before now that I have a guaranteed place to go next year. I know I made it past the first cut at Indiana, and apparently I'm still in the mix at Ohio if the inside scoop is right. I'm expecting Rutgers, Michigan and Chicago to all be big fat no's though. Just wish they'd send the emails and put me out of my misery. I continue to not understand what takes them so long to send a rejection letter. Less than a week until March though, and March is really "Go time," so, looks like this wild ride might be coming to a stop soon.

Any idea what sort of number they are playing with? I mean, last we heard, they had a few dozen names for only like a dozen spots. Has the list been whittled down, or are they waiting to skin that cat until after they figure out the TAships?

Congrats to those who got into Michigan. Looks like it might be no dice for the rest of us. It was my top choice, but I believe that everything happens for a reason, so I'm not sweating it. That's incredibly competitive funding too. Looks like you guys hit the jackpot!

Something for me to look forward to.

Officially got into the MA program at Nebraska-Lincoln today. Got a very nice, fairly flattering call from the grad chair there (whose work I'm a big fan of). Also got fully funded as well! =) Tuition, partial health care, and $11K stipend for two years with a TAship. It's not my first choice, and I'm waiting to hear from other places, but I really like the program, and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I really like a lot of the professors in their department, and I can't wait to meet them. I'm still in a bit of shock. I figured getting funding for an MA would almost be harder than getting into a PhD program! I'm geeked!

Michigan has like the second largest non-private university endowment in the nation. it's been a pretty big issue here in the state with budget woes as they are. A lot of people are talking about having Michigan go private since they suck up so much in state funding but have a massive endowment. That does seem disproportionately generous though, even just given what we've seen stipends be on this forum thus far.

Congrats you guys. Looks like a rejection for the rest of us.

Anyone know what the latest with Ohio is?

5 in African history seems like a decent sized group. I'm on pins and needles myself waiting for American history news. Seems like a pretty big couple of days though with acceptances for Chicago, Michigan and Rutgers all turning up. Looks like my big three might have all just given me the shaft. I remain hopeful though.

And the governor wonders why they're calling him "Hosni."

Make that 4 acceptances for Rutgers. At least two are European.

Thought we'd have to wait longer for Rutgers. They're one of my top choices. I guess I'll cross my fingers over the weekend.

What's your field?

Three acceptance entries on the results page from Rutgers. Looks like they've made at least some decisions. Anyone have any word there on if they're done or if they do rejection letters after the fact? Just sort of hanging in the breeze here.

I like the one for English too. I think it's funnier because the stereotype is so much more widespread about the English student who wants to go to grad school, probably because there are just so damned many more English majors out there. I double majored in English and history, so I've met the "I'm so brilliant" English student many times over. I considered a grad degree in English a couple times as a possible fallback to history, but, I imagine it has to be twice as hard to get as history. The funding problems are the same, but there are probably twice as many applicants from the horde of morons who want graduate degrees.